Psycho-neuro immunology 

There is a growing interest, by the elitists and scientists, in the matters that were not considered science till recently such as, mind, body, soul, past life, consciousness, energy medicine and so on. This is another area where naturopaths have an advantage of using certain tools in their clinical practice, without compromising their basic philosophy. In fact, it goes well with their philosophy that body's innate capacity to heal itself is always available within the body.

Mind-body medicine deals with the brain, body, mind and behavior. It looks into the emotional, mental, social, and spiritual practices of an individual or the community to the extent that it influences the health.
Conventional medicine has ignored the link between mind and body. An emerging consensus reveals that psycho-neuro-immunology plays an important role in an individual's health indicators.

There are many practices that play a major role in dealing with stress-related health conditions. Guided imagery, bio-feedback, relaxation techniques, hypnosis, meditation, etc. are being used by many teaching and corporate hospitals both for therapeutic as well as research purposes. Prayer, pranic healing, reiki, chakra activation, visualization, distant healing, etc. have also been considered as tools by conventional medicine. In countries like USA, people are accepting all these mind-body medicine tools in their attempt to avoid or minimize drugs for their psychosocial disorders.
Historically speaking, India has been using both formal and informal versions of folk medicines in dealing with psycho-social disorders for more than two thousand vears. However, till the 15th to 17th centuries, the Western world did not regard them seriously. Technological advances in medicine made the microscope,stethoscope,blood pressure apparatus, etc. commonplace. Treating disease has become more of a technology that deals with matter alone. Mind-body interventions have also been employed in pain management.

Headache, low-back pain, post chemotherapy morbidity, anxiety neurosis, skin lesions, and so on are treated with mind-body interventions.
Recent studies suggest that the tendency to report positive, as opposed to negative, emotions may be associated with greater resistance to objectively verified colds.
These laboratory studies are supported by longitudinal studies pointing to' associations between psychological or emotional traits and the incidence of respiratory infections.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) ,Positron emission tomography
(PET) scanning of the brain have been in the use in proving meditation induced positive effects on immune system.
This high tech research reveals that activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) and sympathetic-adrenal medullary (SAM) systems can modulate levels of metalloproteinases MMPs and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases
TIMP providing a physiological link among mood, stress, hormones, and wound healing. Evidence from randomized controlled trials and, in many cases, systematic reviews of the literature, suggests that mind-body-medicine can offer solutions in the areas of endocrinal functioning, immunity, autonomic functioning, coronary artery disease, pain management and so on.